Today, President Obama will award the Medal of Honor, the United States’ highest military decoration, to Sgt. First Class Leroy A. Petry, who lost his right hand in 2008 while tossing away an insurgent grenade that could have killed two of his fellow Army Rangers in Afghanistan. It will be only the second time that the medal has been given to a living soldier in the nearly 10 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, and only the ninth time the medal has been awarded to an Iraq or Afghanistan veteran.
Both medals given to living soldiers were presented by President Obama. In other words, Bush didn't present a single medal of honor to any living soldier fighting the wars he launched. But it's even worse than that:
In fact, when you compare the length of the current wars and the number of Medals of Honor awarded in connection with the Vietnam War, about 270 more Iraq and Afghanistan veterans should have received it by now. The disparity only increases when you compare the current wars with all of our nation’s previous wars, except the Persian Gulf war of 1991. The highest number of Medals of Honor was awarded during the Civil War, with an average of nearly 32 for every month of the war, sometimes while the soldiers were still on the battlefield. And yet here we are, a military and civilian population exhausted and demoralized after almost 10 years of constant fighting, with only nine Medal of Honor recipients in our ranks, and only two of them alive to actually wear it. Even the relatively smaller size of today’s fighting force doesn’t explain the discrepancy. Though there were far more troops involved in the previous wars, a study in 2009 by the Army Times newspaper found that during World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam, the number of Medal of Honor recipients ranged from 23 to 29 per million troops. For the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been just one award per million troops.
Even the relatively smaller size of today’s fighting force doesn’t explain the discrepancy. Though there were far more troops involved in the previous wars, a study in 2009 by the Army Times newspaper found that during World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam, the number of Medal of Honor recipients ranged from 23 to 29 per million troops. For the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there has been just one award per million troops.
It's inexcusable that this nation is not properly honoring the men and women in uniform who honor us all with their courage and sacrifice.
As her influence grew, the Soviet state attacked her, vilifying her as a “witch” who had enchanted her husband and distanced him from his family, and summoned her for interrogations. Yet Elena was not a bitter person. She was a pillar of strength and comfort in her relationships with her husband, Andrei Dmitrievich; her children, Tanya and Alexey; her grandchildren; and countless others. She reminded us that the dignity of individuals, which lies at the root of our modern notion of human rights, starts in the quiet shelter of the home, with the recognition and love of those closest to us.
Right-wing activist and former California legislator Steve Baldwin has organized an open letter to “Conservative, Catholic and Evangelical Leaders” asking them to refuse support for Mitt Romney’s campaign for president. Already a number of activists including failed US Senate candidate and Tea Party hero Joe Miller; Rick Scarborough of Vision America; Brian Camenker of MassResistance; Linda Harvey of Mission America; Michael Farris of the Home School Legal Defense Association; Ted Beahr of WND and Movieguide; Gary Glenn of American Family Association-Michigan, Kelly Shackleford of the Liberty Institute; Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation; Floyd Brown of WND; Dick and Richard Bott of Bott Family Radio, and the leaders of a number of anti-choice groups have signed the letter. The letter says that “a Romney candidacy would be disastrous for the conservative movement and for the country,” writing that he is insincere in his conservative beliefs and “continues to support many aspects of the homosexual agenda even today.” The activists claim that “the flatly illegal charade of ‘gay’ marriage exists solely in Massachusetts due to Governor Romney’s illegal actions,” and lists numerous other issues including abortion rights and health care reform where Romney has reversed himself: “Romney has also been both in favor and against minimum wage legislation, capital gains taxes, gun control, amnesty for illegal aliens, campaign finance reform, the Kyoto agreement, gambling, gun control, and many other issues.”
The letter says that “a Romney candidacy would be disastrous for the conservative movement and for the country,” writing that he is insincere in his conservative beliefs and “continues to support many aspects of the homosexual agenda even today.” The activists claim that “the flatly illegal charade of ‘gay’ marriage exists solely in Massachusetts due to Governor Romney’s illegal actions,” and lists numerous other issues including abortion rights and health care reform where Romney has reversed himself: “Romney has also been both in favor and against minimum wage legislation, capital gains taxes, gun control, amnesty for illegal aliens, campaign finance reform, the Kyoto agreement, gambling, gun control, and many other issues.”
Even some of his own party's leaders recognize Romney as a hypocritical empty suit.
If the American people won’t vote for the kind of government he wants, then we must strip away the people’s ability to choose their own government. Elections haven’t worked. Sadly, McConnell’s deeply authoritarian plan to take away our ability to choose how we will be governed is part of a much larger conservative agenda to strip American democracy of any meaning and force conservative governance upon the American people
Sadly, McConnell’s deeply authoritarian plan to take away our ability to choose how we will be governed is part of a much larger conservative agenda to strip American democracy of any meaning and force conservative governance upon the American people
Civilian deaths in the Afghan War reached a record high during the first half of this year, a United Nations report said Thursday, documenting a worsening toll of roadside bombs and suicide attacks by Taliban insurgents as well as helicopter-borne airstrikes by coalition forces. U.N. officials said they'd counted 1,462 civilian deaths from January through June, 80 percent of which they attributed to Taliban militants.
U.N. officials said they'd counted 1,462 civilian deaths from January through June, 80 percent of which they attributed to Taliban militants.
As one of the planet's largest single carbon absorbers, the ocean takes up roughly one-third of all human carbon emissions, reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide and its associated global changes. But whether the ocean can continue mopping up human-produced carbon at the same rate is still up in the air. Previous studies on the topic have yielded conflicting results, says University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor Galen McKinley. In a new analysis published online July 10 in Nature Geoscience, McKinley and her colleagues identify a likely source of many of those inconsistencies and provide some of the first observational evidence that climate change is negatively impacting the ocean carbon sink.
But whether the ocean can continue mopping up human-produced carbon at the same rate is still up in the air. Previous studies on the topic have yielded conflicting results, says University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor Galen McKinley.
In a new analysis published online July 10 in Nature Geoscience, McKinley and her colleagues identify a likely source of many of those inconsistencies and provide some of the first observational evidence that climate change is negatively impacting the ocean carbon sink.